This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Cooking at home away from home is real fun and also a learning experience. Here in Portland, I just raid my daughter-in-law's pantry, lay my hands on ingredients which I had never cooked before and start playing with them ! Here is my simple Vegetable Pulao where I have used " Black Rice" instead of the usual Basmati rice. In ancient China black rice was cultivated only for the Emperor's consumption. The superior quality grain was forbidden to the general public and hence it was also known as "Forbidden Rice". The black grain looks like the long Basmati rice.

INGREDIENTS

Chinese Black Rice - 2 cups ( soaked overnight)

Chopped Carrots - 1 cup

Green peas - 1 cup

Chopped onion - 1/2 cup

Finely chopped green chillies - 1 tsp

Finely chopped fresh ginger - 1 tsp

Finely chopped garlic - 1/2 tsp

Finely chopped fennel stem with leaves - 2 tbsps

Salt - 1 3/4 tsp

Sesame oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon - 1'' piece

Cloves - 4

Cardamon- 2

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds and allow to splutter.

2. Add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

3. Stir in onion and garlic and fry till golden in colour.

4. Add the chopped ginger, green chillies and the fennel stem and saute for two minutes.

5. Drain the presoaked Chinese Black rice and add it to the seasoning.

6. Saute until dry and stir in the carrots and peas.

7. Add salt and four cups of water and bring it to a boil.

8. Lower the flame, cover and cook stirring occassionally.

9. Cook till all the water is absorbed and till the pulao is done.

Enjoy the nutty flavour of the Forbidden Rice Pulao with any gravy of your choice.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Feeling happy and relieved after the book release. Now that I am back to my food blogging I am posting the recipe of SEERAALAM - a roasted lentil curry, which was hibernating all along in my draft.

Urulaikizhangu Roast and Bisibele Bath is my family's favourite combo for a Sunday lunch. Potatoes that too roasted ones were taboo for my cousins who were pursuing a particular diet. Hence when they joined us for a Sunday Bisibele, I prepared SEERAALAM instead. They mistook the curry for roasted Senaikizhangu/Elephant Yam Curry until they tasted it.

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.